By Tiernan Ray

Shares of Violin Memory (VMEM) were up 2 cents, or 0.9%, at $2.71, just before the shares were halted this morning, in advance of the company’s announcement that Howard Bain III, its chairman, will replaced Don Basile as interim chief executive while the company searches for a permanent replacement. The board decided to terminate Balsile’s role without remarking on Basille in particular.

The stock has resumed trading and is now soaring, up 34 cents, or almost 13%, at $3.03.

The company notes Bain has experience as a chief financial officer at numerous companies, including Informix and Symantec.

Violin’s head of the board’s governance committee said the board felt it needed to increase management’s focus:

The Board believes this leadership change is necessary to enhance the management team’s operational focus and ability to execute the Company’s plans for profitable growth. We are, however, fortunate to have someone with Howard’s extensive operational, financial and leadership experience ready to assume the role of interim CEO at this important juncture for the Company. During his time as director of Violin Memory, Howard has gained a deep understanding of the Company’s products, customers, strategy and management team, as well as the significant growth opportunities in the enterprise memory market. We are confident that he is the right person to lead Violin Memory while we search for a permanent replacement to fill the CEO role. Violin Memory is focused on maintaining the operational flexibility to manage through the emerging dynamics of our industry, with financial resources on hand to achieve our objectives. While our fundamental strategy to drive growth remains unchanged, we will pursue additional tactical initiatives to improve the overall cost efficiency of the business and improve sales leverage through our partner and indirect channels. We have a robust product roadmap in place that positions us well to take advantage of the transition to a memory-based data center and build an even stronger future for all of our stakeholders. Having served as Chairman of the Board, I am well aware of the many opportunities ahead and look forward to engaging with the Company’s customers, team members and shareholders in the coming weeks. Most importantly, I am confident in our team’s ability to execute and provide our customers with the high level of support and service that they have come to expect from us.

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DECEMBER 16, 2013 4:05 P.M.

DeFrawi wrote:

Every company that IPOs has a pop and drop. It's universal in today's dysfunctional IPO markets. If Zuckerberg was let go in the first couple of months after IPO, FaceBook may have never reached their $50+ share price a year and a half later. The pattern today is usually 10-18 months to reach first day of trading price again. It's been twelve years and this system is not self-correcting -- but companies can apply preventative measures pre-IPO if they're savvy, and perhaps soften or avoid the blow...Brands and people suffer unnecessarily in the confusion and chaos that follows, based on the false belief that today's IPO markets are sane.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.